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DIY Anti-Aircraft training

I’m going to level
with you. I’m profoundly
bad at shooting stuff down in an AA vehicle. I just wanted to share a
quick tip on how to practice, a lot, by yourself or with just 1
teammate. I know this technique will be old news to many of you, but
I figured it might help some slow people – like myself. I just
figured this out a few months ago, and I’ve been playing for years.

Anyhoo,
All we’re doing is setting up a custom battle that will provide the
aspiring AA ace with a target rich environment.

Just
Getting Started:

Custom Battles → Create Session.

In
the map selection menu, try to pick a map that is small, open and
you’re familiar with. For example, I like the “Ardennes” or
“Fields of Normandy” maps. You just want clear lines of fire and
a small size to make things go faster. Once you find a map you like,
click “Start”.

Next
up, the settings. Here are
the important ones to have, you can customize the rest to your taste.

Difficulty:
Realistic

Time
of Day: Day

Weather:
Clear

Limited
Fuel: No

Limited
Ammo: No

Respawns:
Unlimited

Bots
Rank: I rank

Bots
on Tanks: No

Enable
additional AI vehicles: Yes

Number
of Players: 64

Air
Battles Mode: No

This
configuration will fill the skies with biplanes, ready for you to
practice on. Keep in mind that nothing really counts here, so planes
on your team are targets too! You might run into a situation where
you get a target lead indicator even with the battle on “Realistic”
mode. To remove this, go to your options menu and head to the “Main
Parameters” tab (it should be the first one and selected by
default). Then, scroll down to “Air Battle Settings” and set the
“Show Leading” slider to off. There you go!

A
few comments to consider:

-
The planes will take a while to get into range. Be patient.

-
You can shoot down your own team’s planes without penalty

-
If you can dig up a teammate, have them fly on the other team and
provide feedback

-
LEAD!

-
Seriously, lead the fornicate out of the target

-
Try to wait until the target is less that 1km away or so

-
Don’t forget to use the gunner’s sight if you need to

-
If you need to worry about bullet drop, they’re too far away

-
HAVE FUN!

-
Use replays or friends to
determine how far off your aim/lead is

- Don't be afraid to J out - you can come back as many times as you want

- There will be NO tanks, other than you so relax

Hopefully
this will help people up their AA game. I’m
still in need of a great deal of practice, but I’m at least “mildly
less bad” than I was before.